Opposition to bills requiring that only fire-safer, also known as reduced ignition propensity (RIP), cigarettes may be sold in the Commonwealth (H1914, S1345, S1363)
Princeton Street fire caused by fire-safe cigarette
May 08, 2008
NEW BEDFORD — An early morning fire at 31 Princeton Street is being blamed on a lit fire-safe cigarette. This is the second New Bedford fire in two months believed to have been caused by this type of cigarette, which is designed to prevent accidental fires.
Firefighters arriving on Princeton Street at about 12:57 a.m. spotted heavy black smoke pouring out of third floor front window of the building. According to Lt. Steve Medeiros, the two residents of the first floor and the family of three that lived in an apartment encompassing the second and third floors had already exited from the house by the time firefighters got there.
Crews climbed up a side staircase to the third floor, where they quickly focused on the ceiling to prevent the fire from spreading. Within about a half hour the blaze was extinguished. The third floor suffered the heaviest fire damage, but all three floors suffered extensive water damage as well. The house is currently uninhabitable.
“It’s not a total loss, but the house is not liveable at this time,” said Lt. Medeiros, who did not have an estimate on what it will cost to repair the residence.
He noted that the fire was likely caused by a Marlboro Medium fire-safe cigarette left in an ashtray that was placed on a windowsill. Fire-safe cigarettes are constructed with bands of slow-burning paper that are supposed to cause the cigarette to go out if left unattended for an extended amount of time. The ashtray with the lit cigarette fell onto an unused bed, igniting it. The family, which was on the second floor of their two-story apartment, smelled the smoke and alerted the other residents of the house. No inhabitants or firefighters were injured.
Lt. Medeiros said that this is the second local fire this year believed to have been caused by fire-safe cigarettes. The other occurred in March, when John Gonsalves, Sr. of Oakdale Street was killed in a fire. Officials say Mr. Gonsalves accidentally started the fire with one of his fire-safe cigarettes.
Bill requiring self-extinguishing cigarettes on Romney’s desk
Friday, May 12, 2006
Standing with firefighters from around the state, consumer advocates and other members of the newly formed Massachusetts Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes, state Rep. Rachel Kaprielian, D-Watertown, called on her colleagues to pass a bill requiring tobacco companies to produce and sell only “fire-safe” cigarettes in Massachusetts.
Kaprielian, who is the lead sponsor of the fire-safe cigarettes legislation, said, “Cigarette manufacturers must be held to the same safety standards as other companies whose products pose a fire hazard. Self-extinguishing cigarettes reduce the risk of fire for smokers, as well as their families and our state and local firefighters.”
Fire-safe cigarettes are made with special paper containing “speed bumps” that slows down and extinguishes a cigarette’s burn if the smoker is not actively puffing on it and are less likely to cause fires than regular cigarettes.
“Hundreds of lives are lost each year in fires caused by smoking materials. Yet the technology for fire-safe cigarettes exists,” said National Fire Protection Association President James M. Shannon. “Legislation being considered on Beacon Hill will help stop the senseless loss of life caused by these fires and will not cost the state of Massachusetts anything.”
The pending legislation, named for the Kearney family of Boston who lost six people in one of the city’s deadliest fires caused by a smoldering cigarette, has passed through the Senate and is awaiting action in the House.
“The Kearney family has been showing up here at the State House for almost a decade to share their story,” Kaprielian said. “We can do something to prevent others from having to endure the pain and suffering the Kearneys must live with every day. The Kearney bill is long overdue. Not one more family, not one more firefighter and not one more needless, unnecessary death needs to happen because of the wrong kind of cigarette paper.”
Fire-safe cigarette mandates have passed in California, New York and Vermont (and for all of Canada). A similar bill is awaiting the governor’s signature in Illinois, and several other states, including New Hampshire and Rhode Island, are considering such legislation.
Cigarette-ignited fires are the leading cause of home fire deaths in Massachusetts and are responsible for 700 to 900 deaths in the United States annually. Additionally, thousands of victims suffer devastating burn and lung injuries, and property losses total millions of dollars each year. One in four cigarette fire casualties is not the smoker, and many of the victims are children. So far this year, at least seven deaths in Massachusetts are believed to have been the result of cigarette-ignited fires.
Read
2) Further, the Commission warned that with even a slight increase in RIP cigarette toxicity the harm to the health of the consumer of such a regulation would outweigh any benefit of possible fire prevention.
3) The Harvard School of Public Health Study, “Fire-Safer Cigarettes” (January, 2005), found that in addition to an 11.4% rise in carbon monoxide, 5 other of the 19 toxins tested increased significantly with RIP cigarettes. The study’s authors warn that research is needed to determine the effects and disease risks of the toxins of RIP cigarettes on smokers.
4) Former State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Koh testified at a Committee on Public Safety hearing May 4th that it was unclear how the 11.4% increase of carbon monoxide in RIP cigarette smoke would affect the health of smokers and those exposed to secondhand smoke.
5) Although a regulation similar to the proposed bills has been in effect for almost a year in NY there have been news stories of cigarette-caused fires there. The enclosed story attributes the fire specifically to an RIP cigarette. Fire officials say it will take more than a year to determine if the regulation has reduced the number of cigarette-caused fires.
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Practicability of Developing a Performance Standard to Reduce Cigarette Ignition Propensity, August, 1993.
Fire Safer Cigarettes, HSPH, January, 2005.
Vermont Guardian, April 8, 2005.
Center of Tobacco Cessation. Massachusetts State Facts.
MA: Cambridge Citizens for Smokers’ Rights
Residential Smoking Fires and Casualties
Topical Fire Research Series,Volume 5 – Issue 5
June 2005
http://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/tfrs/v5i5.pdf
